Field
A hydrocarbon feed is usually reformed in a primary steam methane reformer and a secondary reformer such as an autothermal reformer to produce a raw syngas. In more recent systems, the syngas leaving the secondary reformer is further reformed in a reforming exchanger to produce the raw syngas. The raw syngas is then purified in a system that typically includes one or more gas shift converters, one or more carbon dioxide removal units, and one or more methanators to produce a purified syngas.
Description of the Related Art
An ideal syngas for the synthesis of ammonia will have a molar ratio of 3 moles of hydrogen to 1 mole of nitrogen. Traditional ammonia synthesis systems continue to struggle to produce a syngas with this desired hydrogen to nitrogen molar ratio while simultaneously increasing ammonia production capacity. One attempt to increase plant capacity includes replacing existing units with units having a larger capacity, which requires large upfront investment and plant shut down time.